Page 16 of Valley Girls
All she had to do was keep going.
Pressing firmly against the wall, away from the edge, Rilla made her way back to the edge she’d ascended.
The pool shimmered in the breeze thirty feet below, sparkling like a sapphire inlaid into silver granite. The people—strangers in every way, no matter how nice they’d all seemed—sat talking with their feet in the water. Occasionally studying the cliff with their eyes shaded. They’d forgotten her already.
Rilla’s stomach turned, and the exhaustion and fear left her empty. But she had to get down, she had to keep going, and there was only one way. She backed up, lifted her chin at the empty space, ran, and ...
Jumped.
Straight and sure. Her body snapped tight, hurtling with a snarl toward the bottom of the hole. The water swallowed her, filling her ears and nose, and pausing her heart with its chill. But there was relief in its cold baptism. She arched her body up for the sun, as her clothes swirled around her limbs. Her stomach rolled and unknown fear shook out in every inch of her body as she thrashed.
Her head broke.
Petra hollered encouragingly.
Instantly, Rilla felt the panic on her face and how visible it all was. The fall and the force of the water had sheared back pieces of herself she had never intended to remove. With one deep gasp of the wind, she locked the cold and the fear into her chest, teeth clenched tight to keep it from escaping.
Petra hollered something, her smile becoming clear as she stood on the shelf and held out a hand.
Rilla’s ears buzzed. She couldn’t quite hear, but she swam over and took Petra’s hand, letting herself be hauled to stand on the lip. Her shirt was plastered to her bra, and her hair hung in strings. The breeze so cold she wanted to jump back into the water.
“I thought you didn’t climb?” Walker said accusatorily.
Rilla swallowed and unhinged her clamped jaw. “I don’t,” she managed to say, hiding the trembling by bending to wring the water out of the bottom of her shirt.
“That water looks cold.” Petra laughed. “I don’t mind the jump, but I don’t want to swim.” She shivered.
Rilla tried to chuckle, but it came out more like a hiccup. She flashed Petra a casual smile and shrugged it off. “On the plus side, I think I’m finally sober.”
Petra looked confused, but she didn’t ask. “You’re making me reconsider why I haven’t made it to West Virginia yet. I’ve heard the New River Gorge is amazing.”
“It’s one of my favorite places,” Caroline said. “You should totally go, Petra.”
“Oh, that’s right, is that the closest climbing to you?”
Caroline shook her head. “We’re closer to the Red.”
All Rilla wanted to do was to listen to someone talk and not feel totally lost. She sat down and clutched her knees, trying to keep the trembling under control.
“You have to do itnow, Hico. She’s never climbed,” Petra said, sloshing toward the base of the cliff.
“The climbing isn’t the problem,” Hico replied. “It’s the swim.”
The wind died and the sun hit her back, easing the shudders wrenching at her spine.
Rilla closed her eyes. She could do this. She could do this. Whatthiswas, she was still uncertain. But she kept telling herself she could, over and over.
“What was that shit?” Walker asked, his tone low and clipped.
No one answered. Her eyes flew open and found him watching. “What?” she asked stupidly, dropping her gaze. Unfortunately, staring at the hard lines of his forearms draped over his knees just turned her mouth cotton dry like she hadn’tjustcrawled out of the water.
“You don’t climb?” he asked.
“I’ve never been climbing,” she said.
“What did you just do?”
“Cliff-jumping.” Just like at home. Minus all the warmth, friends, and inner tubes.
